If you went to Newent Community School in the 1980s and 1990s, you may well recognise at least some of these reasons why your time at Watery Lane was a memorable one...

1. Puff's Alley . A short cut from the school to Culver Street and the centre of town, avoiding the long walk down Watery Lane. Narrow and tree-lined, it provided the perfect cover for illicit smoking, to which it may well owe its name.

Culver Street- a short walk from the notorious Puff's Alley

2. Scragg's Bank . Between the back of the school playing fields and the top end of Culver Street, this hidden dingle offered the perfect venue for all manner of innocent (mainly) teenage liaisons.

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3. Third Year Camp . In the shadow of Pen Y Fan in the Brecon Beacons, a week under canvas here was a rite of passage for everyone in what's now called Year Nine.

The tents were single sex (most of the time), the toilet was unspeakable, there was a massive mountain to climb whatever the weather, we cooked inedible food and Swansea leisure centre was must visit for a shower because the only other washing option was a swim under a cold waterfall. We loved it!

Third year camp is still going strong

4. Cross Country . Who enjoyed this? Frost or snow meant rugby or football was off for the boys and if we were lucky we'd watch a video of great sporting feats in a nice warm classroom.

If the PE staff were feeling vengeful, a lap out to Knappers Farm or a relay through the stream at Scraggs Bank would be on the cards. It was so cold that it took at least two people to remove a rugby shirt with frozen hands.

The school is an ideal venue for cross country

5. Mr Trevail's Harley Davidson . The legendary head of Maths, Tony Trevail rocked up to school on his Harley, which he proudly parked as near to the front entrance as possible.

If the weather was bad, he would ride in on his completely unfashionable Communist-era MZ. He was not known to drive a car.

Sadly he died in 2005 but will never be forgotten.

Tony Trevail

6. Redgra burns . It was red but it wasn't grass and didn't your knees burn if you slipped over in a hockey match?

This evil surface of hard packed grit was the predecessor to artificial grass, which replaced it in the mid-90s.

The redgra

7. Pupil v staff sports matches . Mainly hockey fixtures at the end of term, and with grudges simmering it probably wasn't a good idea to arm a bunch of teenagers with sticks in a confrontation with teachers.

Hockey's big at Newent

8. Lunchtime five-a-side tournaments . The brainchild of now-Rednock School headteacher David Alexander, these short, sharp matches pitted all ages and both sexes against each other - an ingenious handicapping system levelled out the playing field, so to speak.

For example a team of first year girls would have something like a 15 goal start on a team of fifth year boys - who would have just a handful of minutes to overcome that start.

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14. House photographs . Every other year a huge camera would be wheeled out, which scanned across several hundred kids and dozens of staff, who were on strict instructions not to move a muscle.

Someone usually did, but did anyone really run round to the other end and get in the photo twice?

Nelson House in 1987

15. The story about the pupils walking to the new school site in 1965 . Apparently they walked up Watery Lane to the new school in September 1965 and every kid was told that some even took a table or chair with them.

The school celebrated 50 years in Watery Lane last September at a hugely successful celebration.